


Caught Up and Human

by Byacolate



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: First Meetings, M/M, Pre-Relationship, death godlike watcher - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-21 19:09:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14921207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Byacolate/pseuds/Byacolate
Summary: Their meeting was strange, but not nearly as strange as all that would follow.





	Caught Up and Human

**Author's Note:**

  * For [coolgirl3890](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolgirl3890/gifts).



> A commission for coolgirl3890 with Aloth and their sweet Death Godlike watcher, Nameless, who wanted a little oneshot about the day they met.

“You want to travel - with me?”

 

It was a challenge Aloth had never known, trying to parse out the emotions crossing a face he could hardly see. Tentatively, he took a stab at identifying the parted lips and hopeful tone as a positive thing.

 

Before them, the gang of backwoods fools lay crumpled and groaning in the dirt. Iselmyr started to gather a thick ball of spittle to launch at the big one’s bloodied face, but with a grimace, Aloth forced himself to swallow it down. Before his savior could misread the look of distaste on Aloth’s face, he schooled his expression. Placid as as a marble statue and precisely as firm.

 

“I do. If you are amenable,” he supplied, primly wiping the blood from his leather jerkin. “There is safety to be found in numbers, yes? Perhaps one day I may even have the opportunity to repay you for your timely intervention.”

 

“There’s no need to - yes. I would - yes, I’d like that.” The plumes of smoke drifting from the back of this advantageous interloper’s skull drifted off with a breeze. “It would be nice to travel with someone again.”

 

“Excellent. If we are to travel together, perhaps introductions are in order.” Pressing a hand to his sternum, Aloth took a shallow bow - polite, but casually so. “Aloth Corfiser, at your service.”

 

“Nameless,” is his reply. Aloth gave the joke its due laughter, pressing his fingertips to his lips. At least his new traveling companion had a sense of humor. 

 

“Shall we… carry on inside? I do believe that proper introductions are best made out of the cold and over a drink.”

 

Settled in by the fire at the tavern, Aloth painstakingly ignored the watery ale in his hands and the creaky old chair beneath him. He focused instead on the Godlike by his side.

 

“So.” Aloth nodded toward him, a smile on his lips. “As we may be together for some time, I’d like to get better acquainted. I would have your name, if you please.”

 

“Oh. Uh.” He took a little sip of his ale, his face turned toward the fire before it moved to face Aloth again. “Nameless.”

 

Aloth blinked. “Forgive me, I don’t follow. Is this a joke?”

 

“It isn’t.”

 

Mortified with himself, Aloth could hardly concoct one of the amalgam of apologies trying to escape his throat before a little smile ticked at that mysterious mouth. “Truly, I must apologize -”

 

“No, I ought to - I usually have to explain.” It eased his nerves a little to see that his companion was nearly as flustered as he was. “I was raised in an orphanage from birth. The women there allotted me a name of their own. Nameless. Whether intentional or not, it stuck.” His smile adopted an awkward sort of tilt. “Or perhaps it was only a joke that simply did not end.”

 

Aloth sniffed. “Well. If it was a joke, it was in poor taste.”

 

“Maybe,” he laughed, but softly. When he finished his ale, Aloth offered his own to replace it. “I don’t mind it, though.”

 

Slowly, Aloth nodded. He rested his elbows upon the wooden arm rests and steepled his fingers together. “Then I suppose it would hardly be prudent to kick up a fuss myself.” As an afterthought, he made sure to punctuate the comment with a little smile.

 

All told, Aloth’s fine new companion was not much of a conversationalist, but when he tried, he was a pleasant one. His low voice drew Aloth in, in spite of himself, and the more he revealed of himself, the more assured Aloth became that their meeting was fortuitous.

 

Though the coin between them was sparse, Aloth and Nameless managed to scrape together enough copper for two rooms upstairs. Though frugality was one of Aloth’s virtues of preference, and though he had come to enjoy the company of his new acquaintance, it would hardly be the mark of a wise man to sleep alone with someone he had only just met.

 

Still, Nameless did not seem annoyed or perturbed that Aloth chose his own space, and when they parted ways in the hall, he offered Aloth a tentative smile.

 

“Shall I meet you downstairs in the morning?” he asked, featuring toward the stairs. “After sunrise - I’m in no rush if you’re not.”

 

“No, not at all,” Aloth replied, dipping into the deep pools of his long-instilled social pleasantries. “We shall meet then.”

 

When he settled in for the night, Aloth set his wards about the room before he laid down, grimacing at the feeling of laying abed in his dusty, bloody road clothes. With little to his name besides, he literally could not afford to be picky. So to draw his mind from the sensation of wallowing in his own grime, Aloth’s thoughts turned to his new acquaintance.

 

He had met Godlikes in his time, of course - some even Berath’s own. But he had never shared a pint with one in a backwoods tavern after saving Aloth from either death or social suicide.

 

Iselmyr’s spitting grumbles rattled around in his head, and Aloth fastidiously ignored her. With any luck, he would be rid of her soon enough. He had always had a purpose, traveling to the Dyrwood, following the Leaden Key, and…

 

No, he knew where this line of thought led, and had no plans for the night to end sleeplessly. Wherever they were headed in the morning, Aloth was quite sure he would prefer to be well rested.

 

_Bit braw, weren’t ‘e? And tha’ hefty stunning arm?_

 

“Quiet yourself,” Aloth mumbled, forcing his brow to unfurrrow.

 

_Och aye, aye, amn’t I always jist as silent as the grave? Dunnae mind me one mo’. Now. Did ye not see the pert shape ae his aft side -_

 

Aloth rubbed two hands over his face, quietly groaning into the heels of his palms until Iselmyr fell silent. Mostly silent. Were that all she did was grumble so softly within him that he could mistake her for a bit of indigestion.

 

Aloth rolled over onto his side, bunching up the straw pillow under his head, and forced himself into a fitful sleep.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

When the morning came, pallid and yellow, Aloth watched with no small degree of concern as his new companion stood staring at a hanging corpse for a little too long to be natural, and steadfastly ignored the human nearby gnawing on his pipe. The way he looked between Aloth, Nameless, and the tree gave off the distinct air of a man concocting a one-liner.  

 

Sure enough, once Nameless woke from his daze and joined Aloth beyond the gate, the yokel couldn’t help himself.

 

“Name’s Edér,” he finally said, puffing away on his pipe. The white smoke caught by the lazy breeze mingled with the Godlike’s before drifting away, entwined. A hand was waved in Aloth’s direction, half startling him.

 

“This is Aloth.” He patted himself on the chest. “Nameless. That’s me.”

 

Edér bobbed his head in thought before he took the pipe from his mouth, nodding at nothing. “Uh huh. Uhh. Pardon me? Don’t reckon I caught that right.”

 

Aloth smiled privately to himself, glancing over at the chapel ruins as Nameless went through the motions of his introduction again.

 

This might prove to be an interesting adventure after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm writing a high fantasy comic about a wandering bard! [Check it out from the beginning HERE!](https://bardbouquet.tumblr.com/post/179195348759/a-dwarven-heirloom-a-blade-in-the-dark-and-a)
> 
> "In March I’ll be rested, caught up and human." - Sylvia Plath 
> 
> My Tumblr: [wardencommando](http://wardencommando.tumblr.com/).  
> Inquire about fic reque$t$ [here!](http://wardencommando.tumblr.com/ask)  
> 


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